For those that have read my about page, I used to be involved in the MMO (massively multiplayer online) space. Since quitting and focusing on (what I see as) more lucrative markets (local and blogging), I’ve still kept a good relationship with pretty much all the large players - while I tired of it, keeping abreast of news is interesting.

So today, after tucking the missus to bed and getting on the computer to catch up on some email, I saw an interesting email in my inbox (from a trusted acquaintance). Wowhead, a popular World of Warcraft website, was purchased for over $1 million.

Some quick background (hold on, it can be a bit confusing):

Before WoW launched officially, a lot of EverQuest players were invited to beta test. One of them was Thott, leader of one of the largest EQ guilds (Afterlife). Being a resourceful programmer, and utilizing WoW’s LUA programing interface, he wrote Thottbot. The program basically stored information on all quests/items/creatures/characters/etc that the user came across, and then uploaded it into a centralized system (Thottbot). Users around the world could then load up information, find out how to do quests, where to go, etc. Distributed with the most popular WoW add-on (Cosmos), the site was an instant hit.

Before Thottbot, the pre-eminent database site for online games was Allakhazam. It had the largest subsites for the (then) most popular games - EverQuest, Final Fantasy XI, Dark Ages of Camelot, and Star Wars Galaxies. Allakhazam was a subscription site, making money from people willing to pay for features like advanced search (incidentally, all the content on Allakhazam was actually user-submitted).

I had the mental fortitude to snap up Thottbot (for IGE) right before WoW came out of beta. I can’t disclose the details, but it was in the $xxx,xxx range. For the amount of traffic the site got, it was an absolute steal.

With Thottbot on the scene, Allakhazam greatly suffered. Why would people pay for a subscription with everything for free on Thottbot?

Another quick aside: for those new to MMOs, companies like IGE sell virtual currency and goods for real-world dollars. For all the (unwarranted) hype of Second Life, IGE et all are far bigger - they push hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods every day. A lot of players don’t like them - they believe virtual good sellers corrupt the ‘pure’ nature of the game.

Allakhazam.com was operated by a guy who used the nickname ‘Allakhazam’. He was one of the fiercest anti-IGE players around. I had once offered him $1 million (before WoW even entered alpha) - he wasn’t interested. Anyway, the site took a hit, and after a few years of struggling to survive, he eventually broke down. He sold out to IGE for roughly $7-10 million. The justification was that he sold the site to ‘Affinity Media’, which owns (but isn’t) IGE. Anyone with half a brain knew that they were the one and same.

So - with Thottbot/Allakhazam owned by IGE, they pretty much owned the WoW fansite market (and thus a huge audience to push their wares to). At least, if it wasn’t for Wowhead. A late-comer, the site was an instant hit, with its clean UI and fast loading speed (think of Thottbot as Altavista, and Wowhead as Google). You can see on Alexa how Wowhead has grown while the others have stagnated.

And so ‘Affinity Media’ has struck again. Verified by three different sources, the price was confirmed at over $1,000,000. The lower limit was 1 million, while the upper was $1.5 million.

And people thought running a fansite wasn’t worth it

UPDATE: Some people have asked for proof - I can’t give you that. But - I did confirm with another source. As far as I am concerned, this is solid. So Digg it.

UPDATE2: IGE has been ’supposedly’ sold off by Affinity Media. They used FUD when they purchased OGaming. They used FUD when they purchased Allakhazam. Just some more FUD - rest assured IGE/Affinity Media are still very connected.

UPDATE3: The FUD doesn’t end. Remember - I sold OGaming to IGE, while they claimed it was ‘RPG Holdings’ that purchased it. I’ve experienced it firsthand. I talked to another contact - it is a bit byzantine (how the site was ’sold’), but as it stands, IGE US LLC’s parent company is Affinity Media. Certain properties may have been sold, but not the company itself.

UPDATE4: The sale is confirmed:

News travels fast! We were hoping to have the time to put together a proper announcement about this, but it appears word is already out, so we wanted to acknowledge it: now that IGE is out of the picture, Wowhead has decided to become a part of the ZAM Network.

I leaked the sale before it was officially announced, so that shows I did have someone on the inside (my past with Thottbot etc just confirms it). All the same contacts are saying the same thing - Affinity is still very much involved with IGE.

UPDATE5: At the recent VRGood Summit, it seems Brock Pierce (CEO of IGE) talked about getting out of the game, with no mention of IGE having been sold from Affinity. Consider this sale supposedly happened over two weeks ago, seems a convenient thing to forgot. Not to mention walking around with an ‘Affinity’ badge.

UPDATE6: I’ve written about why Allakhazam, then Thottbot, and now Wowhead became the top dogs. More developer/design-focused.

My recent posts have included one about Google opening up the directions API, and about Loki and its geo-location systems.

The next flood is open APIs - everything is opening up, and while it is exciting, it is also a bit overwhelming.

Beyond the above two (all great fits for iBegin), we have Garmin releasing an API to interact with its devices, we have Google Mapplets, and Facebook’s shift into a platform. And those are only a few. What about integration with login systems like OpenID and Yahoo? Exporting capabilities so others can create too?

I think we are reaching the point of so many powerful (ie - highly trafficked) sites having open APIs that it is becoming more and more important to have someone fulltime mashing your data with these systems. The above examples I gave are all perfect fits - figure out the closest gas station using Garmin. A mapplet for important categories like cafes or fast-food. A module so Facebook users can not only search but also incorporate their reviews, pictures, and events into the system. Allow Yahoo!/OpenID/Google ID users to login so they don’t have to create yet another account.

And the list goes on and on - whew … keeping up is becoming harder and harder.

There is a lot of talk about walled-garden et all, but I believe with the hyper-activity now going on in building out APIs that anyone can use, it is becoming more important to just by everywhere. Users don’t like being forced one way in another - but they do like it when you support a multitude of systems.

Companies were initially afraid of search engines - but then became best buddies with all the traffic they sent. Same thing happened with social networks - they were very resistant at first, but now you see Digg and Del.icio.us links everywhere. Sure they send traffic to Digg/Delicious/et all, but they get a lot of traffic back. And the same thing is going to happen (especially in the local space) with all these open APIs. Garmin works hard to get its users. Google is always angling new ways to keep users on their site. Facebook works hard to keep users on its site. It makes sense to leverage their platforms to get more traffic to your sites.

Think about this - a user (with a Yahoo account) ends up on your website. They want to add a review - but have to be logged in first. In one situation, you require them to create a new account. In another, they can login using their Yahoo account. The choice should be obvious.

I believe the ‘winners’ will be those who are found everywhere, on all the major platforms.

I usually eschew posting news, but to me, this is big.

Most sites I have come across that use Google Maps API send visitors to Google Maps to get directions. No need anymore - Google has released driving directions as part of their API.

This really makes me pause - why would they do this? I’m sure the directions issue was pushing a fair bit of traffic to Google Maps - are Yahoo/MSN/Ask/Mapquest far behind?

Whew.

We recently sent out a massmail to both Blog Top Sites - we are looking for bloggers interested in blogging about their local city (major US cities only for now). If you are interested, do email local@bloggynetwork.com.

Already 163 responses, and getting one per ~5 minutes. I think we will end up with roughly 200-250 emails.

I believe, in terms of approaching local, we now have the most massive breadth:

• iBegin - city search
• iBegin Source - business data provider
• iBegin Geocoder - geocoding abilities for US/Canada (not launched yet)
• iBegin Source Hosted - hosted platform for local search. Eg Minnesota.com or Lauderdale.com
• Blog Flux Local - aggregated local news powered by blogs (not launched yet)
• is My Home - city blogs [eg newyork.ismyhome.com] (not launched yet)

We have other stuff coming too (community-related), but those are 6+ weeks off. Everything else mentioned above should be live within four weeks.

This massive breadth will allow us to do some … interesting things. We get roughly 20,000 unique visitors a day now, but by end of year we are targeting at least 50,000 a day. Should be a fun ride.

Slight Update: 24 hours after posting this, we’ve now received 261 emails from people interested in being a part of our local blog network. I think we will end up around 275.

It has spread to every nook on the internet - Google picked up Doubleclick for a sweet $3.1 billion

With it, Google gains access to some big-name clients of DC - brand managers for major companies that have a lot of money. PPC is just a facet of internet advertising - there is also banner advertising (which Google has a small share of, and DC a large share of), CPA (which Google is expanding into, and DC has the highest quality network for), and email (which I don’t think Google is going into any time soon).

Anyway, the story goes that Google beat out Microsoft (again). And by beating out Microsoft, they also beat out Yahoo (after all, all three are going after the same - internet advertising).

Yahoo is looking especially vulnerable. Since picking up Flickr (which I still argue was mostly for guaranteed ad-inventory), and Delicious/MyBlogLog (both for user behaviour/tracking), they’ve been relatively silent. There was suppoused to be a deal for Facebook, but that has not produced anything.

If there is one product that I think Yahoo is pushing ahead of Google is local. Local is more than just local search though - it is about a presence in the local area. And while I argue Yahoo! Local is superior to Google Maps, Yahoo has really pushed ahead of Google with key partnerships with newspapers, the latest being with McClatchy.

So while Yahoo continues to sustain PR black-eyes, what can it do?

Buy up companies in the emerging local market.

With that in mind, and a way to get a leg-up on Google (for once), Yahoo could go and buy out (for relatively cheap) both Local.com and Yelp.

Local.com keeps making noises about how much traffic it pushes (roughly 11 million unique visitors a month). They claim $35 RPM (revenue per 1000 pageviews), and ~$90 per 1000 daily visitors. While their CPM doesn’t compare to Google’s, it has gone up significantly, and by utilizing Panama, it should be able to make even more. As Google and Yahoo jostle for the local market, Local.com and its 11 million unique visitors a month make perfect sense. There are some other things to consider (eg Local.com heavily invests in PPC), but a great domain with steady traffic could be a good call. And local.com needs money - it just received $8 million in funding.

The other site would be Yelp, which simply fits into Yahoo’s strategy of user-generated content: Jumpcut, Flickr, Upcoming.org, and Del.icio.us. User generated, active participation, without too much butting in by Yahoo (though I am sure quite a few Flickr fans would disagree). They would get their hands on some of the most loyal visitors in the local area (you don’t drop 400 reviews on a site and then just get up and leave). Yelp struggles with their ad-sales, but few sites get as much attention as they do (especially considering how much real traffic they do get). But that attention has helped them skyrocket, with Hitwise reporting that Yelp’s traffic has increased 91% in just six months.

Get the top independent local search site, and the top local review site - I do wonder what the valuation would come out to, but I am sure Yahoo has enough cash to scoop them both up.

Synergy was an awesome buzzword. Not only does it mean something, it just sounds awesome. If you had synergy, you couldn’t go wrong.

People have often asked me - is there something wrong with me? Do I have ADD? (not to imply ADD is wrong, but you get the idea). Why can’t I just *focus* on one thing and go with it?

The answer is simple: having resources in various areas makes it much easier to ‘push’ a product.

Case in point: Blog Flux Local

While not launched, the entire project is a very daunting task - we essentially want to catalog local content, and geocode it to where it belongs. Similar to outside.in, but really - more simplistic.

So one of our initial problems was - how do we figure out where a post is about? We can attempt to parse out street intersections etc, but that is haphazard. We can ask people for GPS coordinates (FeedBurner supports this) - but who the hell is gonna figure that out?

The simple truth is that we associate places with names (or even street intersections). I would say “McDonald’s near Elm and Queen Street”. I wouldn’t say ‘131 Elm Street’ or ‘23.2352, -115,234234′ Now to be able to do something like that, we need both the business data and the geocoder.

And so now in comes iBegin Source and iBegin Geocoder (launching soon). We already have support for linkage on iBegin Source - basically you link to that specific page, and we link back (right now you have to manually add the link, but we are working on a trackback system for that). Example: Best Vet Inc in Boynton Beach, FL.

We know the post is about XXX, we know that XXX is located in YYY - so now we know where all of this is.

The next challenge then is to introduce bloggers into this system. And that is where Blog Flux’s fantastic reach comes into play. Almost 31,000 blogs approved, and over 72,000 registered users. Throw in Blog Top Sites with another 30,000 members (50% overlap with Blog Flux), and you now have the potential to reach 87,000 users about this service (by the time we launch it should be 90,000). Blog Flux is going from strength to strength (just peaked at 45,000 pageviews a few days ago) - this will just push it further along

I’m not going into more details about how we are presenting the data and so forth (aha!), but this should give an idea on how having multiple established brands can be a good thing. Do remember that both iBegin and Blog Flux have their own staff, so it’s not like you can just setup two brands and enjoy. It takes time to do that too.

The beauty of having data is once you know what to do with it, you can get it done fast.

So I spend a few hours whipping up a quick and easy mashup of restaurants + mapping. Basically pop in an address or move around the map, and it will show you the 30 closest restaurants.

I do want to add that the Explorer actually uses our own in-home geocoder solution (which we will be releasing ’soon’).

Of course, extending this to any other category/categories would take all of 5 minutes.

I plan on releasing the code so anyone can see how it was done … but right now, the conference is around the corner.

UPDATED: Just noticed it doesn’t always work in IE - some little JS bug. Will fix it later on. Try this link for now: restaurants near 91101. And if entering an address, click on ‘Center’ (dont press Enter).

Yeah yeah, it is just a quick prototype!

This isn’t about politics, it is about blogs as a form of crowdsourcing journalism (maybe I should add ‘citizen’ to complete that buzzword collection).

I read a story on the LA Times about how a blog drove the the US Attorney story.

For those that don’t know, the current US General Attorney (and I guess Karl Rove, President Bush’s deputy chief of staff) are under heat for firing US attorneys’ whose politics did not line up with the administration’s.

The storyline is simple:

1. Blogger (Josh Marshall, owner of Talking Points Memo) posts that the state’s attorney is being fired.
2. He does a follow up story that several others were being replaced (an oddity mid-term). He asked his 100,000 readers to write in if they knew anything about why they were being let go.
3. Over the span of two months, they figured out who was fired, and the likely politics behind it.
4. Heads start to roll …

Of course I simplified the story, especially the grueling work of putting it all together. But what is amazing about this story is that it could never have happened without all these readers coming together. This would never have come out five years ago (with the exception of a leak). I could wax on about the great power this gives us individual users (huzzah, watch out politicians), but it should not be needed. And yes, stories like Dan Rather and the Trent Lott were also due to bloggers, but they could have been picked up by reporters too. A story like this only came out because so many people worked together in figuring out what the hell was due.

On the lighter side - am I the only one who thinks Josh Marshall looks like Dennis Quaid? (source)

I have an odd obsession. Almost every time I come across a company that I find even mildly interesting, the first thing I do is run for the ‘About Us’ page. I want to know about the company, and invariably, I am always failed. Really, the ‘About Us’ page should be renamed to ‘Marketing Drivel that touches upon the company at a tangent.’ I’ve been so frustrated with what passes off as an About Us page that I didn’t even bother including one on iBegin Source. I instead opted for the more generic What is iBegin Source?

Even 37signals falls short. Sure they have a nice little blurb about the company, but I want to know the meat of it. I want to know who founded it. I want to know what happened. I want to know what really makes the company tick.

And so today, imagine my delicious surprise at the SitePoint About Us page. Fantastic! It is both marketing and actual meat. I absolutely loved the timeline on the right - the chronicling of how the two founders started, how they crossed roads, and how they have gone from strength to strength. Matt using Xoom.com? It brought a smile to my face - who didn’t use one of those atrocious free hosts back in the day? (before we knew better). I remember seeing webmaster-resources.com in the SERPs for the longest time, and now I know why it redirected to SitePoint.

The page is laid out in a perfect manner - the keypoints, impressive Alexa graph (even though admittedly I am not a fan of Alexa), news, and a nice timeline.

So with that in mind - kudos SitePoint - great job indeed.

Yep, it is finally here - iBegin Source.

I will be adding a post soon about ‘15 things iBegin Source does better’ soon.

And because you want to: Digg This

Note: Locking this thread for comments, add your comments to the 15 things iBegin Source does better post.